Taylor Farms Retail, Inc. is recalling select Organic Baby Spinach products over concerns they may be contaminated with (EHEC) Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli. Symptoms of the diseases caused by EHEC include abdominal cramps and diarrhea that may in some cases progress to bloody diarrhea. Fever and vomiting may also occur. According to a company press release… Continue Reading
“We’ve been thrown under the bus.” That’s how some organic farmers and advocates are describing the government’s “eleventh-hour” decision on Jan. 1 to extend the 2008 farm bill for 9 months instead of enacting a new 2012 farm bill. Their dismay is based on how organics fared when the 2008 farm bill was extended until… Continue Reading
It held five meetings, waited until after the election, gained consensus among all but one of its members, sent off a 61-page report to the Secretary of Agriculture and now is waiting for the reviews, which are starting to come in. Its consensus report envisions crop coexistence in a nation with a diverse agricultural base… Continue Reading
Peter Townsley, who sold non-compliant Biolizer XN fertilizer in California’s Salinas Valley from 2000 to 2006, begins a 364 day federal prison sentence today. U.S. Judge Charles Breyer imposed the sentence on Nov. 7,including a $125,000 fine and six months in a halfway house for the beginning of a three year probation when Townsley gets… Continue Reading
Opinion
A meta-analysis of the health benefits of organic foods was published in The Annals of Internal Medicine on September 4, 2012. A large team of physicians and graduate students affiliated with the prestigious Stanford Medical School carried out the work. The paper’s basic finding was that consuming organic food does not deliver “clinically significant” improvements… Continue Reading
Opinion
In the West, Kroger stores go by the circus-like name of King Soopers in the cities and City Markets in the mountain towns of the Rockies. The “Soopers” closest to me was recently expanded into a massive superstore. And it now has a huge USDA Organic department. It’s just one way I know with my… Continue Reading
A bill that would put some teeth into federal organic food law was introduced Tuesday by a bipartisan pair of representatives from opposite sides of the country. Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) and Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY), introduced the legislative to ensure that products carrying the USDA’s organic seal comply with the 1990 Organic Foods Production… Continue Reading
Consumers are likely to see much more domestic farm-raised seafood bearing an organic label in the not-too-distant future. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a memo this week about forward with developing an organic aquaculture certification program. According to Seafood Source, “Existing U.S. rules do not allow any seafood to bear the coveted ‘USDA Organic’… Continue Reading
A Loyola University psychological scientist is hung up on the moods people get into because of what they eat. The researcher is now saying that people with a taste for organics are more likely to be insufferable. He earlier found that bitter food left people with more than a bitter taste in their mouths. The… Continue Reading
The international organic market just got a little bigger. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced Wednesday that the organic certifying programs in the United States and Europe Union are now considered equivalent. The new partnership between the two largest organic producers in the world means that products certified organic under one certification scheme can… Continue Reading
Organic Pastures raw dairy products are being recalled statewide in California and are subject to a quarantine order by California State Veterinarian Annette Whiteford. The quarantine order came following notification by the California Department of Public Health that five children were infected, from August through October, with the same strain of E. coli O157:H7, the… Continue Reading